OTHO, or Otto, of Freysingen, a celebrated chronicler of the twelfth century, was the son of Leopold, margrave of Austria, and of Agnes, daughter of the Emperor Henry IV. Although born in such a high sphere of society, he descended to the condition of an obscure scholar and a self-denying ecclesiastic. He studied at the universities of Nürnberg and Paris; entered the order of St. Bernard in the abbey of Morimond; and in 1136 became abbot. His half-brother, the Emperor Conrad III., removed him to the
see of Freysingen in 1136. The rest of his life, with the exception of an interval during which he accompanied the imperial troops to Palestine, was passed in the assiduous and pious discharge of the duties of his diocese. He died in 1158, while on a visit to his old residence, the Abbey of Morimond. Otho left behind him a Latin chronicle of the world from the creation till his own time. Of the seven books into which it is divided, the first four are a mere selection of passages from Orosius, Eusebius, and others. It was published in fol., Augsburg, 1515. He was also the author of a treatise concerning the end of the world, and a history of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, entitled De Gestis Frederici Aenobarbi Libri Duo. This latter work is inserted in Muratori's Rerum Italicarum Scriptores.